The Commerce Department announced on Wednesday the sales at U.S. retailers dropped 0.3 percent m-o-m in September, following a revised 0.6 percent m-o-m advance in August (originally a gain of 0.4 percent m-o-m), primarily due to lower households’ spending on motor vehicles, building materials, hobbies, and online purchases. That marked was the first decline in retail sales since February.

Economists had expected total sales would increase 0.3 percent m-o-m in September.

Excluding auto, retail sales edged down 0.1 percent m-o-m in September after an upwardly revised 0.2 percent m-o-m advance in the previous month, matching economists’ forecast for a 0.2 percent m-o-m gain.

Meanwhile, closely watched core retail sales, which exclude automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, and are used in GDP calculations, were unchanged m-o-m in September after an unrevised 0.3 percent m-o-m rise in August.

In y-o-y terms, the U.S. retail sales rose 4.1 percent in September, the same pace as in the previous month.